


Where You Came From

by anonymous_sibyl



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Female Gen Ficathon, Female Protagonist, Gen, Sorkinverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-06
Updated: 2006-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:05:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymous_sibyl/pseuds/anonymous_sibyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ain't nothing but a family thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where You Came From

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SecondSilk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondSilk/gifts).



> Written for [](http://secondsilk.livejournal.com/profile)[**secondsilk**](http://secondsilk.livejournal.com/) in the [Female Gen Ficathon](http://www.livejournal.com/users/jennyo/560716.html). She requested CJ Cregg from _The West Wing_, "Something about her brother(s) or their families" and no mention of anything past the end of season six. (The lack of canon information about her brothers sent me wigging until I realized the magic of it all: I got to create them entirely!) Thanks to [](http://annavtree.livejournal.com/profile)[**annavtree**](http://annavtree.livejournal.com/), [](http://tintros.livejournal.com/profile)[**tintros**](http://tintros.livejournal.com/), and [](http://alex-virital.livejournal.com/profile)[**alex_virital**](http://alex-virital.livejournal.com/) for the beta.
> 
> This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/). None of the media or characters written about in my fanfiction belong to me and I make no profit from these works. 

"CJ?" Carol peeked around the door. "Your brother's on the phone."

"Howie?"

"That's the one. You want him or would you rather I just convey information back and forth between you two?"

"Very funny, Carol. You're fired." CJ grabbed for the phone. "Brother of mine!"

"Claudia Jean."

"Howard." She smiled as she imagined his frown. "I told you to stop calling me that. You sound like Dad."

"I can't get used to CJ. It's too new."

"Yes, new like I started being called that in the Seventies when I was but a babe in arms. Your arms. Let it go, Howie."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Is this a purely social call?" she asked.

"Business," he said. "Sort of. Tal's birthday is this weekend."

"I know, but I thought he was away on business. Hogan said something about California when I talked to her the other day?"

"Right, he leaves tomorrow. But what wonder-niece didn't know is that I'm away on business, too, and I'm sitting in Maryland right now."

"Howie! Why aren't you here sitting in my office? Did you forget where the White House is? Because there are maps. And tours. Also, it's a big white house, you can't miss it."

"Very funny. I was hoping there wouldn't be any wars or assassinations today, and that you could meet me at my hotel so we could go to Tal's tonight. We could surprise him."

"I am there."

"Call me if anything comes up, Clau-, I mean CJ."

"There you go," she laughed. "Took you long enough."

"Shut up, _Claudia_."

"Goodbye, _Howard_."

* * *

"Oh no you don't," she said, when Josh leaned on her doorframe. "You have that look, Josh, and that look does not bode well for me."

"What look? I have no look. I lack look."

"And I lack time." She sighed and motioned him into her office. "What? Explain the look. Do it now and do it fast, buddy boy, because I am out of here."

"Really?" Josh raised his eyebrows. "I thought I saw you prettying yourself up. Who's the lucky guy?"

"Guys," she corrected. "As in two. And I need no prettying up, my friend, because I am one damn fine example of woman."

"That you are." Josh backed away nervously, hands raised in the air, when CJ frowned. "I mean, you are if you want to be, and of course you are anyway, and... look, it's Toby! Toby wants to tell you something!" He took hold of the other man's jacket and pulled him into the doorway. "I think I hear Donna calling."

"You should know that I am not asking what that was about," Toby said, after Josh had disappeared from sight.

"Good, because I have no idea." CJ picked up her coat, then paused, one arm in its sleeve. "Did you need something?"

"No." He took the coat and helped her into it. "Early night for you."

"Dinner with my brothers." She fixed her collar, then tucked her hair behind her right ear. "Do I look okay?"

"You look remarkably like the White House Press Secretary."

"So, stunning and sublimely intelligent?"

"Exactly."

* * *

Giggling, they stood on Tal's front porch. They'd left Howie's rental car down the street, and had snuck down the sidewalks humming the theme from _Mission Impossible_.

CJ poked Howie in the side before he could knock on the door. "You have some sort of branch in your hair."

"Well, get it out, baby sister."

She ignored him. "I told you not to roll into that hedge. The car coming down the street was in no way Tal."

"It could have been." He brushed his hands through his hair. "Besides, we are spies, Claudia Jean. On a mission. Top secret."

Tal opened the front door, startling them. "You know," he said, plucking the offending branch from his brother's hair. "When my neighbors call and say someone is trampling their shrubbery I automatically assume my brother and sister are here. At least I don't have to say my sister was in the hedges, do I?"

"Not in years, Tal," she grinned. "Well, there was that one time..."

He smirked. "Yeah, what was that guy's name again?"

"Shut up."

Laughing, Tal pulled CJ and Howie into a bear hug, then pulled back and looked them over. "You look good. Both of you. It's good to see you together."

"Yes. It is." CJ smiled fondly at her two brothers before she stepped by them and entered the house. "Very."

* * *

_"Am I ugly?"_

"That is a very un-CJ-like question to ask, Claudia Jean." Tal twisted the baseball in his glove. "Who do I have to beat up?"

"Nobody." She scuffed the toe of her Keds in the dirt until it was more brown than the sparkling white she'd started out with that morning. "I was just wondering."

"Good thing you didn't ask Howie." He laughed as he tossed the ball back to her and nodded in approval as she caught it. "There's a rule for you, CJ, never ask Howie to tell you the truth. He'd much rather tease you."

"Yeah."

"You're not ugly, little sis." Tal caught the baseball and whipped it back at her. "And you better not let Dad hear you say that. I don't want to sit through the lecture on Beauty Comes From Within again. Anyway, that only leads to something about math, and I don't really like math."

"I do," she said. "I like words better, though."

"That's because you're smart."

"Yeah," she said, but this time she grinned. "And this is just an awkward phase, I'll grow out of it." She aimed the baseball to the left of her brother's head and laughed when he had to lunge to catch it. "After all, you did."

"Yeah, but Howie didn't. So it's fifty-fifty you stay awkward, CJ. Fifty-fifty."


End file.
